Was NES Hardware Ever A Perfect Grey Color?

[racketboy]

Or have they always had a slight red/yellow tint?

The SNES stuff I see in good condition seems to have more of a blue-grey -- seems a bit more pure.

However, even my cleanest NES stuff seems to have a tint that is more red/yellow. Not heavy yellowing or anything, just a bit of a tint.

Was NES stuff always that tint or were they more pristine (like good SNES stuff) 25 years ago?

[smurdd]

yeah the nes used to be a nice shade of grey. I've heard that nintendo put flame retartdent chemicals in the plastic. And over time exposure to light and other things cause it to yellow.

[Opa Opa]

Here is my most recent snes cleaning job. Still gotta do the yellowing removal process. Only the top is yellowed which I have no clue why. Everything else is the original color.

I can see the blueish-gray tint you're talking about. I think it's safe to assume that all NES/SNES systems will have some sort of color change eventually.

[Flake]

I've heard that the exposure to U/V is to blame for most yellowing but looking at the uniform nature of the effect on separate plastic panels on the same system, it's pretty clear it had something to do with the process they used to create the plastic in the first place.

A real shame, too. Eventually all the old Nintendo's are going to look like shit.

[racketboy]

Well SNESs seem to have this problem more than NES.
And It seems like SNES controllers don't have the problem as much as some SNES systems.

I think my point was that we still see some pristine SNES controllers, but I don't know if even if the best condition NES controllers are originally a different tint or it's purely aging.

Have anyone seen an NES controller that is the same color as a perfect SNES controller?

[Opa Opa]

Eventually all the old Nintendo's are going to look like shit.

What about the N64's? If they had been the same color as the nes/snes would they have color changes? Or are they made of a different plastic?

[ChuChu Flamingo]

Nothing good ol retrobright cant fix.

[racketboy]

I'm not trying to re-hash an old discussion of how to get rid of the coloring or how it happens.

I'm hoping somebody just addresses my actual question.
Sorry if I'm coming off as snippy, but I'm looking for an actual answer.

[Flake]

I'm not trying to re-hash an old discussion of how to get rid of the coloring or how it happens.

I'm hoping somebody just addresses my actual question.
Sorry if I'm coming off as snippy, but I'm looking for an actual answer.

I think the actual answer is 'yes'. Looking at old photos (as opposed to altered images for advertisement purposes) the NES did look perfectly gray.

I also remember (though I can't find anything to back this up) that the Nintendo 'gray' was supposedly trademarked by Big N and that Sony was able to borrow the color for their original Playstation due to rights they reserved after Nintendo backed out of their joint venture.

[msimplay]

I've always read and seen pictures of this yellowing but my Snes (PAL) never yellowed and I played it quite a lot in those days.

I was horrified when I bought another Snes a few years ago and found it to have yellowing.

I don't understand how or why it happens to so many machines out there not exclusive to Nes or Snes